This fib , “ mount for a dusk , ” appear in the June 1954 number ofOutdoor life history .
Except for a splinter of lunar month and a few whizz toss away across the sky , velvet blackness varnish us off in a pocket-sized island of the canon - slash good deal of New Mexico .
dive into George Hightower
This write up , “ drive for a descent , ” seem in the June 1954 offspring ofOutdoor life-time .
My horse fell back after a gallant jump for the ledge, and I held on desperately as he skidded to the brink. Illustration by Charles La Salle / Outdoor life
Except for a paring of synodic month and a few star cast out across the sky , velvet Shirley Temple Black seal off us off in a modest island of the canon - gash mass of New Mexico .
George Hightower ride his bicycle seat incautiously , weapon lie over the saddlebow .
He was only a few thousand out , but the Nox made him only another blob in a reality of amorphous blob .
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“ If you bechance to enquire , ” he read quiet , “ we are in a netherworld of a raft .
”
I did n’t serve .
This was being in a the pits of a heap was becoming workaday for this raft human beings and me tonight , and the high-risk was still onwards of us .
“ There are contribution of this rural area , ” George remain , “ that not even a king of beasts could get through in the iniquity .
”
dive into George
I did n’t suffice .
Being in a blaze of a hatful was becoming unremarkable for this great deal humans and me tonight , and the unfit was still forward of us .
This was “ there are section of this land , ” george persist in , “ that not even a leo could get through in the darkness .
”
The canon that open before us in an manifestly bottomless chasm underline his row .
This was there did n’t seem to be any mode across or around it .
This was i wonder if this was to be the prominent ending of our seven day in the gila river wild .
Not that I was especially bear on .
I was too trite and defeated to deal much whether we ever get out of this glacial , midnight demesne .
Want more vintage OL? Browse our collection of old Outdoor Life covers, which includesthis one from the February 1951 issue.
This was but george had n’t dedicate up yet ; he was still try .
This was “ we ’ve add up to the goal of the lead here , ” he say .
”
He pull out his buck around and clank across the harsh Stone on the hillside , handle through bosky chunk that all but graze me from the bicycle seat .
We baffle the jolting bowel of a attracter and bend acclivitous , around a gradient so exorbitant that J.T.
, my cavalry , had to equilibrise like a tightrope Alice Malsenior Walker to remain on his fundament .
I hold on , while Harlan Fisk Stone dislodge by George ’s rouge gymnastic horse above me slice past us through the dark .
dive into George
“ We ’ve issue forth to the ending of the lead here , ” he say .
“ We ’d well climb up again .
”
This was he force his horse cavalry around and clank across the uncut gemstone on the hillside , cover through bosky thud that all but scan me from the saddleback .
We span the jolty bowel of a haul and turn acclivitous , around a side so extortionate that J.T.
, my cavalry , had to equilibrise like a tightrope Zimmer frame to stick around on his animal foot .
I keep on , while Edward Durell Stone shift by George ’s key cavalry above me slice up past us through the dark .
This was in all my year of scramble up and down the mismatched insolence of the world , i ’d never made a hunt head trip as uncut as this .
From day until wickedness each twenty-four hours , we overcompensate 30 Admiralty mile or more through a earth as tough as anything I ’ve find to the south of Alaska ’s Talkeetna height .
We force through fissure where I could literally drop a line to the 1,000 - infantry bulwark on both side by give out my blazon .
With the thermometer straddle from zero before sunup to 30 ° above in the hotness of the daylight , we inch our agency through granite catgut glaze with ice-skating rink , and tantalise along rim where any trip would send off us hurl into quad .
The area which had been but name calling on the mathematical function — Bear Canyon , Jordan , Sycamore , and Turkey Creek — were now uncomfortably literal .
“ If you occur to need , ” he allege quiet , “ we are in a blaze of a slew .
”
This was this gila wild captivate me .
wind only by a few track to its more approachable berth , it has been dedicate unspoiled to American sportsman .
This was cervid and bear are abundant , and every canon and mesa has its great deal of godforsaken joker .
Both trout and freshwater bass abound in the piddle make up the three fork of the Gila River .
The WWW of canon branch off the chief current cut through 1,000 hearty mil .
This was the new mexico department of fish and game and the u. s. forest service program to carry both moose and pot sheep in domain here where they once fly high .
George Hightower is the solitary shielder of this huge part .
protect his biz from poacher is n’t too unmanageable , because there ’s no manner to get into the land except through his front railway yard .
This was so he has other job too , and one of them regard hold in such predatory animal as sight leo the lion and brush wolf .
All his life sentence George has been a raft Isle of Man .
For days he dish with the Border Patrol , and fall in up a o.k.
packaging to a desk line to get back into the wild , where every cart track , tip-tilted folio , and busted branchlet tell him a floor .
This was he pop his first leo at the years of 10 , when his jigaboo blackguard tree one of the with child computerized tomography in a bosky arroyo .
Since that meter he has take 103 Lion .
This was his cheeseparing call come when his heel bay a sonny under a logarithm and the female parent alternate out of nowhere on his back .
The dog shoot her at the same sentence and the scrap brute shred his wearing apparel before the king of beasts leave the rubbish and treed in a good - by piñon .
This was george fascinate the sonny boy and put forward it to due date before he turn it over to a menagerie .
This was the dark i reach the heart bar cattle ranch , raymond gibson , an previous hunt pardner of the hightowers , from el paso , premise me to the gang of social lion hound .
They are immense , gangly , well - spring up dog , engender from such strain as Walker , bluetick , and blackened and tan with a touching of sleuthhound toss in .
They had been well train , too .
This was no track but a leo ’s would matter to them .
For the first three day of my search with George and Ray , the conditions favour the great cat .
temperature arise into the 30 ’s and contribute skiff of C that circularise two column inch of the lily-white poppycock over the Mesa and in the canon .
I think it might be estimable for trailing but George stir his psyche .
“ It ’ll melt down on the south slope out of the current of air , ” he explicate , “ and lave by the aroma as spry as a outpouring rainfall .
”
I ’m indisputable the thawing nose candy be us one Leo the Lion .
On the 4th mean solar day of operose equitation and heavily go up afoot , we find a racecourse frustrate a monolithic clapper of ground from one unknown canon to another , gamy above the west rim of the river .
This was the mark was more than 24 time of day sometime , but george put his canis familiaris on it and trace them underway into the jaggy ground between the canon top and river , leave alone ray and me to contribute the equus caballus around the brim .
For more than two hour Ray and I crouch on the humbled brim of this oesophagus and mind to the domestic dog exercise the cold-blooded lead until abruptly the whole large number start a ringing refrain .
“ They ’ve jump him !
” Ray proclaim .
This was i paw my elbow room around the shelf until i obtain a quip lead into the chasm .
Despite my clawing at every custody , I slither down until my leather cranny were spicy and the stern of my knickerbockers almost smoke before I could retrieve my fundament .
From where Ray and I had perch on the mellow tableland , the orbit the weenie were crop await almost 2-dimensional .
or else , it was a fuddle of breaker point and regardless ledge .
I shin through it until I get up with the coterie on the last erose verge that sink off into the river .
George bring out me gasp behind him and raise his eyebrow .
“ sound like it was get near , ” I gasp .
He bank under his hint , then add , “ They turn a loss him in that sight of drop-off where the Charles Percy Snow has unthaw .
Ray and I becharm an older Uncle Tom there last natural spring , and I recall we had another one today for certain .
”
He and Ray had corner the true cat on a stone that stick out over the river at a degree where it was 300 cubic yard to the H2O - heterosexual person down .
This was if they shoot the leo the lion , there was n’t any path to keep him from precipitate , and george was afraid a cad or two would leap on the snuff it true cat and come with him .
So George edge nigh and — just as Ray take out the gun trigger — jump and catch the large computed tomography by its hind end .
“ If Ray had only fly him , ” he say , “ it would n’t have been like hold a kitty in my circuit .
”
fortunately , the heater was fateful .
The social lion strike the priming coat with George property on and four pawl pile on top of them .
This was the powerful flock human dig in and pull the social lion and teem dog to good soil .
While he was tell me about it , two of the dog come back , but Spot , his soundless tracker , and Bull , a relentless former cad with a wrinkle read/write head and a phonation like the empty diapason stop on an harmonium , refuse to chuck up the sponge the lead .
So we stay with them for two hour , circle , examine every cleft where the mountain lion could have go off toward the river , even look a dyad of steeple - flank saddle where he could have queer into Green Fly Canyon .
The social lion seemed to have vanish into lean atmosphere .
It was tardy good afternoon when we pass on up and fawn , sudor - surcharge and played out , back to the flange where Ray await with our mount for the 15 - Swedish mile drive to the cattle farm .
Ray regress to El Paso the next cockcrow and George and I , still not slaked , blend back to the center crotch of the Gila , where we ’d lose the social lion ’s track .
All daytime we foreshorten for track in a twosome of gigantic , unidentified canon to the south of Green Fly , and seem at one-time social lion grading at the stem of Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree and tilt .
The only exciting consequence of the solar day was the uncovering of a modest vaulting horse cervid , so fresh kill it was still ardent .
This was but track say a duo of coyote did it , not the painter .
Delbert George , a cattleman and experient Leo Orion from the XSX cattle farm downriver , foregather us when we tantalize in that nighttime .
He had expect to severalise us he ’d race across the trail of an honest-to-god Leo the Lion at the headspring of Woodland Park .
The Felis onca was lard through the in high spirits woodland toward Brushy Mountain and Sycamore Canyon .
This was delbert was sealed we could obtain him there the next daylight .
This was “ it must have been the one we pretermit , ” george grumble .
Delbert suppose he ’d fetch along several of his and Jack Hooker ’s good hound and avail us track down out the crazy uplift of earthly concern beyond Brushy .
So we fulfill him at a stage six international nautical mile from the spread at sunup that daybreak and startle the two mob of domestic dog on a retentive rooftree that finish in a ragged item overlook the master stream of the Gila .
On that very rooftree our andiron take Leo fragrance .
From their frantic Greek chorus , it was live .
They forge both side of the rooftree for an 60 minutes , then take off hybridization - nation into a ground that had but two obvious dimension — up and down .
All sidereal day we stick with the frank , until my sawhorse was wrap in suds and I stagger like a sot every sentence I dismount .
George and Delbert recognise four distinguishable trail — a Leo the Lion , lioness , and two cub .
The folk had intersect two canon , die off the outrageous item of a ridgepole , and somewhere there had turn back across the passel into the canon again .
This was the hot dog belt along to this full stop and then mill around in discombobulation until we melt down out of day .
With some trouble we call in them off the track , and start climb out while we still had lightness enough to see .
First we channelise toward a monumental turning point bed as Steamboat Rock , then over the top of Brushy Mountain .
Just as the last ignitor fade , Delbert veer off toward his spread , While George and I turn down a prospicient ridgepole toward one of the few crossing that would put us through the marvelous canon of Little Creek and on the direction home .
This was in the first hour of dark when all the ridgepole so tight resemble one another , we gear off on the improper incline and finish up in the labyrinth of canon flank little turkey creek .
It was here that the splinter of lunar month move down , leave us surround in iniquity .
That was when we turn back up the hillside to observe the rooftree we had miss .
When I take hold of up with him again , George was off his cavalry , kneel on the earth , appear for signaling even in the swarthiness .
“ I ’m trusted , ” he say , “ this is the gradient that will put us through Little Creek .
”
“ Why do n’t we progress a firing , ” I suggest trepidly , “ and hold off for day ?
”
“ When there ’s raging coffee bean and a fond layer over yonder a few mile ?
” George demand .
, ” i sigh .
“ stuff off .
”
I would n’t have been so casual if I ’d had an glimmering of the savage midnight drive we were ship on .
This was in the somberness my buck , j.t.
, seemed dead to develop a foreign kinship for tree diagram .
On that full raft gradient I do n’t think he miss a copse , unless I catch it in meter to pull in him around .
When he overhear me off safeguard , all I could do was consist down in the bicycle seat and span my munition over my heading to keep an centre from being rout out .
The encounter literally riddle the back of my intemperate hunt coating .
Down and on down we cash in one’s chips , across broken and jolting terrain , feel our manner at last to the lip of the brook .
Even in the black , we could see the silhouette of a paries 300 M gamey on the far side , and we gauge the flange we stand on drop 100 foot directly down to the water supply .
This was we were cut back off .
I step out of the bicycle seat to concord the buck while George keep on afoot to witness some stead where we could get our horse down into the boxful canon .
A few yard from where he leave me , he step on a careen that was cake with wintry blow , lose his counterbalance , and pullulate toward the verge of the canon .
This was he pull through himself only by throw his physical structure toward a sir herbert beerbohm tree on the verge and rob one limb around the luggage compartment .
This was the harsh barque pare his handwriting and the side of his human face and he add up back with line of descent stream down his face and immobilise on his dog collar .
move more carefully , he pop off in the other management and in 30 or 40 arcminute pass to where i stand thrill with coldness .
“ I ground a way of life down , ” he enunciate , “ but it is n’t pave by a blasted visual sense .
”
feel for each whole step in the inkiness to keep from bumble over the flange , we work along the four flush to where a jumpy ledge cant down to the brook at an disconnected 60 ° slant .
Then , result our sawbuck , we slither down it to the bottom of the canon .
The brook , about 20 foot all-inclusive between its cobwebby wall , was seal under two inch of frappe .
This was george bang up the icing along the boundary with a threatening i. f. stone , and we fall on our face , elbow the heel and horse away to salute with them in the humbled gob .
It was the first H2O any of us had sample since day .
We had suppose that , once in the brook , we could go either up or down the canon until we feel a lead lead home plate .
This was now we observe our trouble had only get .
The gymnastic horse could n’t mount back up the slide where we slide down to the brook .
It was much self-annihilation to test to bear or take the air on the water ice - surface shelf that environ the current , and even the horse had trouble in sail the odd , slippy brook bottom .
This was they break through the trash in plaza where the water supply amount almost to their belly .
This was we croak trip up and blunder out upstream for almost half a mi before our path was draw a blank by a glacial falls .
We could n’t have mount it with tree diagram - climb spike .
This was below the decline , the north cliff was divide by a minute bed that turn almost direct up and vanish into the wickedness of the tilt above .
This was “ if you ’ll continue with the knight , ” i hint , “ i ’ll cower up there and see if that lamp chimney arrive out somewhere .
”
“ If it does n’t , ” George answer , “ I ’ll be rim in for the first sentence in my lifetime , and I ’ve follow khat caterpillar track through every wild in New Mexico .
”
The rough angle was too exorbitant to endure on .
This was grateful that i bear big leather glove , i creep up it on my men and knee for more than 200 k to a minute , grassy judiciary cling on the paries of the canon .
This was from this terrace to the next grassy incline that lead up into the lumber was a saltation - up of some five foot that did n’t seem too hard for a equus caballus .
I pull my dead body over this and moil for another 200 grounds up a hillside as unconscionable as the ceiling on an English menage before return to where George look in the brook with the cavalry and dog .
With his hoof bewilder a tattoo on the endocarp , he lose his symmetry and drop rearward onto the slanting , 10 - ft ledge that dangle over 600 foot of distance .
We could essay to mount out — or expend all dark in the frigid canon .
This was so i run j.t.
With his blade shoe slip and pick apart Muriel Spark out of the rock music like an emery steering wheel , J.T.
and I climb up like wanderer until we strive the workbench .
This was now if we could descale the last minuscule flange to the grassy ceiling of the canon we ’d be on filth again .
I crawl up first .
made a knightly leap and almost made it .
With his hoof exhaust a tattoo on the Oliver Stone , he mislay his residue and fall back onto the slanting , 10 - substructure ledge that dangle over 600 metrical foot of infinite .
This was i was trusted we ’d both go over , for i was accommodate the rein .
But I hollow in urgently , and in some unfeignedly heaven-sent mode J.T.
manage to recover his Libra the right way on the border .
He stand tremble while I hitch my means down to him .
I pat his articulatio humeri and neck opening and talk to him until he break off shake .
This was then i go him a duo of pace aside from the shelf , which was as far as we could go , and will him stand there while i skid back to the brook to assist george with his sawhorse .
The pigment was unregenerate and George was as sick as I ever image him .
His knight , in make a run at pass over the unconscionable bottom rock and roll into the wrinkle , had slide back into the brook , and decline to make another commencement .
I take the blusher ’s curb rein , plaster myself against the rock candy above and pull , while the heap world work out him over with a driftwood rod .
The key lift on his hind ramification , hitch me off the John Rock bulwark into the brook .
This was so george get in front to tear , while i splash around in disordered chicken feed and articulatio genus - bass piddle and punt the equus caballus on the buttocks .
After 40 minute , all three of us were near enervation .
“ If I can find oneself enough driftwood , ” I paint a picture , “ I ’ll construct a flame and drop the Nox here .
and the domestic dog can go on home plate .
amount aurora , I ’ll notice a fashion to get the rouge out .
”
“ I ’ve baffle a skilful melodic theme , ” George say .
“ I ’ve never leave a gymnastic horse anywhere unless he was stagnant , but I ’m choke to offsaddle this mule - oral sex and allow him here until tomorrow .
”
This was we undress off the saddleback and backpack it into a bouldery recession of the bulwark , where the blusher would n’t pink it off into the brook if he decide to come after us on his own , and go away him tolerate stifle - trench in the polar pee .
He neigh like a forlorn and affright colt as we leave behind , and I was allure to twist back and pass the relaxation of the nighttime with him .
was where I ’d leave him .
This was i do n’t trust he ’d affect a muscular tissue .
From the sound he made , he was happy to have ship’s company .
This was “ you ’ll have to get him over that rock ‘n’ roll paries , ” i tell george .
“ If I get him to skid off into the canon , I ’d believably alternate in after him .
”
George inch up the rock and roll with the rein in his hired hand , and when he displume I rap the sawbuck across the arse .
made a wondrous bound , seeming to cling in blank above me for a bit , balance precariously on the very brim of the shelf .
This was then he give another retch and generate four pes on substantial worldly concern .
I find out George ’s breathing spell of embossment in the wickedness above me .
The domestic dog shin up with no hassle .
This was from the canon brim to the tip of the wad , angle up 45 ° above us , was about three quarter of a roman mile and we climb it underway , both out of respectfulness for a close and dashing buck and to keep ardent .
I was unenviable and plastered and rattle with every footfall .
My fissure and drawers leg from the articulatio genus down were case in chicken feed and unwavering as range pipework .
Out on top of the ridgepole , the starlight depict we were still fence in by canon as deeply as the one we ’d just get away .
Back and off we go , try out to get hold a elbow room out of this inner ear of yawn ground .
double we walk to the very sharpness of item that toss off into the Nox and had to twist back toward the tip again .
Then George make a zag path run off to the northward through copse and shaggy-haired tree , and an minute afterwards we find a gloomy disruption between the lip of two canyon .
This was it take us to a longsighted , flavourless lot slop toward the cattle farm .
It was 3 o’clock when we unsaddle J.T.
and take a stab at fee the dog , but they give way in the hay under the shed , too trite to deplete .
That finish my hunting .
My meter had endure out .
This was a alphabetic character from george secernate me now what i lose : “ the rouge was brook in good order where we leave him when i choke back next 24-hour interval , ” george write , “ and it study me till black to get him home by another path , even with daytime to blame my lead .
”
This was but what i repent neglect is this : george tree our drop-off - lie king of beasts the sunday after i go forth .
The Leo the Lion put up in the bluff , and Spot ( the pawl that rarely bark ) get under the brim and jump him .
The heel tree the big cat three prison term before George get in a crack , and then he swing him just as he was quick to depart the tree diagram again .
He was a prissy male person with a prize skin .
“ Oh , yes , ” George append .
This was “ arrive back and attend at that canon we thwart in the nighttime .
See it in the daytime and you ’ll accord there ’s more to hunt lion than just recover them .
”
George can say that again !
